Lips of Faith – Biere de Garde

When I saw this bottle in the back of the beer fridge, I felt a little guilty. I bought it over two months ago with the intentions of writing this very post. Somehow in the flurry of winter warmers and holiday silliness, it slowly was pushed to the back and forgotten about. As I had no idea what Biere de Garde meant – Beer of Guards? Beer for Guards? and was subsequently thinking of slightly buzzed guards and blaming them for all of America’s problems, I Googled it to be sure. You know, before I started ranting (new year’s resolution: check sources and then mouth off) and as it turns out what this means is “beer for keeping.” Thanks for the save Wikipedia. The short of it is that the French apparently had some issues with yeast during the summertime so this beer was brewed during the winter and spring then stored. Summer rolled around and who’s the hero? Biere de Garde, that’s who.

This particular flavor comes to us from the Lips of Faith Series – a collab brew between New Belgium and Brewery Vivant in Michigan. It pours a nice golden color with about a single finger’s worth of head. There’s a nice carbonation to this beer and wafts of orange are immediately noticeable (or the “ale brewed with orange peel” has me brainwashed). Behind the orange is a bit of spice and clove. This beer reminds me a little bit of a champagne but it doesn’t linger on the tongue, it’s sweet but not overpowering – more refreshing than anything else.

Final snobs: I have yet to be disappointing  by the Lips of Faith series. While this is a great beer, I wish I was drinking it on a dock, in a boat….or on a pony that I rode up on my boat. While I don’t think I’ll crack another one of these real soon, I do think I’ll grab another in hopes it’ll make it’s way to the back of the beer fridge. It’ll be warm here in a few months and this beer will welcome spring nicely.

I picked this bottle up at McScrooge’s and they still had several in stock the other day if you want to pick one up for yourself.

Cheers!